Paramedics raced to the home in North Carolina, US, but were unable to save the little boy.

Carmine added: "I’m trying to make progress every day. There’s no way to live with something like this and the images of performing CPR on him will haunt me forever.

"I’m trying my best to work through my grief, I know I have a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. ‘I’m not looking to forget what happened, I never want to forget what happened. It’s learning to live with it, that’s something I have to teach myself."

Hayley, a college student, still suffers panic attacks and also has PTSD.

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The young couple, who split one month after the tragedy, are warning other parents of the dangers of falling asleep with a newborn.

Hayley continued: "I fell asleep about 7pm and when I woke up it was midnight. I didn’t plan to sleep that long but I was just exhausted. "When I woke up I noticed Carmine was asleep and I couldn’t see the baby. I thought maybe he’d put him to bed so I went to look for his moses basket.

"I went closer to my partner to wake him up and said ‘where’s Lucas?’. He looked really confused. He lifted up his arm and you could see Lucas’s body between his arm and the arm of the chair.

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"Lucas’s body was lifeless. Carmine started doing CPR and I called 911 so the lady was telling us how to do it.

"I was screaming and screaming at them to get the ambulance which arrived 12 minutes later."

Carmine, who works in construction, said:

"This could have happened to anybody which is why I wanted to speak out.

"We knew and were extremely careful not to sleep with him. This was one little mistake and that’s why it’s so important to raise awareness."

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